Vehicles such as automobiles include sliding doors provided on sides of vehicle bodies thereof and movable in a front-and-rear direction of the vehicle bodies between opened positions and closed positions. The sliding doors are guided by rails provided on outer surfaces of the vehicle bodies to move between the opened positions and the closed positions. In recent years, technologies are developed to provide the vehicles with covers for covering the rails to improve outer appearances of the vehicles, as disclosed in JP-A-2002-12034.
A conventional vehicular sliding door apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2002-12034 will be explained with reference to FIG. 11A and FIG. 11B hereof FIG. 11A is an exploded perspective view of the apparatus. FIG. 11B is a cross-sectional view taken along line b-b of FIG. 11A.
The sliding door apparatus, designated at 100, includes a recessed part 102 formed on a side of a vehicle body 101 and extending in a front-and-rear direction of the vehicle body 101, a guide rail 103 attached to the recessed part 102 and extending in the front-and-rear direction of the vehicle body 101, and a cover 104 covering an outer side of the rail 103.
The rail 103 guides a sliding door 106 in the front-and-rear direction of the vehicle body 101 through a door bracket 105. The cover 104 has a front end portion attached to a front bracket 107 of the rail 103 by a clip 108. The cover 104 has a rear end portion attached to the vehicle body 101 by screws 109, 109.
Plural intermediate brackets 111 are attached to an upper end surface of the rail 103 and arranged longitudinally of the rail 103. The brackets 111 act as cover supporting members each having a generally inverted L configuration. The rail 103 and the intermediate bracket 111 jointly define a cylindrical space 112 (FIG. 11B) therebetween. Plural attachment fittings 113 are attached to an inner surface of the cover 104 and arranged longitudinally of the cover 104.
The respective attachment fittings 113 are attached to respective retainers 114. Each retainer 114 is then mounted in the cylindrical space 112 by being inserted from a rear side of the space 112 into the cylindrical space 112 between the rail 103 and the intermediate bracket 111. Through the attachment fittings 113, the retainers 114, the rail 103 and the intermediate brackets 111 thus arranged, the cover 104 can be attached to the vehicle body 101.
For improving an outer appearance of a vehicle, it is preferable that the cover 104 have an outer surface 104 in flush with a side surface 101a of the vehicle body 101.
Since the cover 104 is attached via the intermediate brackets 111 and the rail 103 to the recessed part 102 of the vehicle body 101, a position of the cover 104 is affected by how accurately the rail 103 is attached to the vehicle body 101.
Further, since the intermediate brackets 111 are attached to the rail 103 with less uniform accuracy, the position of the cover 104 is also affected by how accurately each intermediate bracket 111 is attached to the rail 103.
Thus, improvement is required for attaching the cover 104 through the intermediate brackets and the rail to the recessed part of the vehicle body with improved accuracy.